Editorials, Opinion Pieces Respond To Bush's Trip To Africa

Main Category: HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 23 Feb 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Several newspapers have published editorials and opinion pieces in response to President Bush's five-country tour of Africa in part to highlight programs funded by the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the President's Malaria Initiative. Summaries appear below.

Editorials

• Chicago Sun-Times: Bush has an "indisputable achievement to his credit: success in the fight against and treatment of HIV/AIDS in Africa," a Sun-Times editorial says. Ultimately, leadership from Bush and the U.S "in ministering" to the HIV/AIDS needs of Africans has "gone a long way in reversing the perception that treating poor people in remote areas with weak institutions is insurmountable," the editorial adds (Chicago Sun-Times, 2/17).
  
  
• Dallas Morning News: "Congress needs to do its part" to support PEPFAR "for the good of Africa" and the U.S., a Morning News editorial says. There are "humanitarian" and "geopolitical" reasons to "support deeper investment" in HIV/AIDS programs in Africa, the editorial adds, concluding, "Congress needs to keep in mind" that investing in Africa "is about healing families and stabilizing a continent" (Dallas Morning News, 2/17).
  
  
• Lancaster Intelligencer Journal: PEPFAR is "one government program that is getting results," an Intelligencer Journal editorial says, adding, "Yet for all the success of [the initiative], some Democrats in Congress want to tamper with the program." Democrats "bristle" at PEPFAR's abstinence spending requirement, but abstinence education "promotes sexual health and should be a part" of PEPFAR, the editorial says. Congress "should appropriately fund PEPFAR -- and leave the program, itself, as is," the editorial says (Lancaster Intelligencer Journal, 2/21).
  
  
• London's Financial Times: President Bush "deserves credit on ... an extraordinary effort in the international fight against HIV/AIDS," a Times editorial says. According to the Times, the next president "should continue his work, while modifying some of the details of his program," such as removing "restrictive earmarks" on how PEPFAR funding is spent; bolstering "direct support to local health services"; and increasing "accountability" (Financial Times, 2/20).
  
  
• Los Angeles Times: Bush returns from his trip to Africa "to face a battle with Congress over" PEPFAR, a Times editorial says. According to the Times, some proposed Democratic changes to PEPFAR would "increase the availability of contraception for poor African women." The editorial adds that although some conservatives find contraception "objectionable," Congress should "expand funding for family planning programs to help the HIV-positive girls and women" (Los Angeles Times, 2/22).
  
  
• New York Post: "Critics of President Bush who contend that his policies have caused the world to revile America would do well to note the adulation" that "greet[ed]" him in Africa, a Post editorial says. PEPFAR and PMI, as well as Bush's "economic-partnership incentives for nations that move toward democracy and attempt to end corruption, have been among the Bush administration's notable foreign policy successes," the editorial says (New York Post, 2/19).
  
  
• Philadelphia Inquirer: Bush's "largesse to the African continent may well be the part of his legacy that ultimately gives him the most pride," an Inquirer editorial says, adding, "The wartime president will be remembered as a humanitarian in sub-Saharan nations that have benefited from his personal commitment to fight HIV/AIDS" (Philadelphia Inquirer, 2/19).
  
  
• Richmond Times-Dispatch: Bush's "trip to Africa emphasized one of the most remarkable -- but barely remarked upon -- success stories of his administration," a Times-Dispatch editorial says. According to the editorial, PEPFAR has "already saved 1.4 million lives -- an astonishing number that should make all Americans proud" (Richmond Times-Dispatch, 2/21).
  
  
• Rochester Democrat and Chronicle: People in Africa are "demonstrating genuine gratitude for much" that Bush has "done for their continent," a Democrat and Chronicle editorial says, adding that there still is "time for Bush, whose record on aid to Africa is one of the few bright spots of his foreign policy, to do more before leaving the White House" (Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, 2/21).
  
  
• Rwanda's New Times: "Nowhere has" Bush's "stamp on African life been so pronounced as" it has been seen with PEPFAR, a New Times editorial says. For reasons such as PEPFAR, along with "much needed humanitarian and logistical support," Africa "recognizes and appreciates Bush's efforts to reduce suffering and promote development and prays for more and greater interventions" (New Times, 2/22).
  
  
• Virginian-Pilot: Bush's "popularity in Africa underscores that good deeds are also good politics," a Pilot editorial says, adding that aid from the U.S. in the form of "drugs, medical care, support groups, prevention counseling and condoms has given Africans hope." According to the Pilot, the "lesson in Africa is that more humanitarian aid ... can lift America's sagging international image" (Virginian-Pilot, 2/21).
  

Opinion Pieces

• Paul Clement, Los Angeles Times: PEPFAR "has done much good" but has "accomplished only a fraction of its potential," Clement, a high school science teacher and editor of a newsletter for parents of children with hemophilia, writes in a Times opinion piece in response to a recent Times article examining PEPFAR. According to Clement, the article was "negligent" for failing to mention any of PEPFAR's "numerous" criticisms, adding that the U.S. "must cut the many strings attached" to PEPFAR that "hobble its effectiveness and bring the focus back to saving lives, not playing politics" (Clement, Los Angeles Times, 2/21).
  
  
• James Munyaneza, New Times/AllAfrica.com: It is "indisputable" that Bush has "showed commitment to help save lives in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa" through PEPFAR, the African Growth and Opportunity Act and the Millennium Challenge Account, columnist Munyaneza writes in a New Times/AllAfrica.com opinion piece. In addition, Munyaneza writes that Bush is "passionately pushing for several pro-Africa initiatives" that "will extend" the programs in the next U.S. administration (Munyaneza, New Times/AllAfrica.com, 2/19).
  

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